Lock and Key
by GemNika
Summary: CoLu Week Compilation. For months, he'd held her prisoner and used her as he pleased. But Lucy refused to give up. When she's finally rewarded with an unlikely savior, will everything work out? Or will the psychopath holding her captive be the victor? (Rated M for a reason - dark and angsty.)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I decided to consolidate some of my CoLu Week stories from the past few years into their own separate stories for the readers who like to read them without searching through everything. Because several of the 2015 stories were continued in 2016, it makes more sense to have them separate, especially since I know a good number of you like re-reading them.**

 **This story in particular is the original plot. I know there's an entry on my profile that says I'll be doing an alternate version of this particular story.** _ **This**_ **is not that alternate version.**

 **I have, however, gone through this and edited it. Because when I first wrote this, it was only a few months after I'd started writing. Hopefully you enjoy the changes that were made. They're not major, but just revision things that I see now that should have been handled before.**

 **Because of the length of this story in particular, I'm going to break it up into chapters for the 2015 and 2016 entries. For anyone who's already read this, you'll notice that as the story progresses some of the 2016 entries were combined with the 2015 entries to make it more cohesive. Now it's not one side of the story for 2015, and then another side for 2016. I think I like it much better this way.**

 **I hope you enjoy the angst and tears.**

* * *

 _ **2015 - Caged**_

 _ **Lock and Key, Part 1**_

* * *

Lucy's vision was swimming when her eyes opened. Her whole body ached. She couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten, let alone had more than a single glass of water in a twenty-four hour period.

Two months ago, she had been on an assignment for Sorcerer's Weekly, and had gotten herself captured. Part of her had thought that with Fairy Tail being disbanded, and with her having a job that was much more normal in comparison, she might be able to break that cycle of getting herself kidnapped and tortured.

She'd been wrong.

It was two months of hell with a disgusting, psychotic piece of shit that didn't know what personal space meant. She wasn't entirely sure how she hadn't already suffered from a mental breakdown, or fallen into that odd disconnection from reality that left her sympathizing with her captor. Maybe it was because she was still a Fairy, through and through, and that was why she'd never given up.

Her keys were always in her sight, but far out of reach. Just like her whip. And her clothes. The only thing she was allowed to wear was a sheer, baby pink robe that he could easily remove whenever he was inclined to use her. When he wasn't around, she was left on the cold, hard floor of her cage and stared at nothing.

There was no one to come save her this time. That was something she had accepted right away. Natsu and her old team had spread out all across Fiore last she knew, along with the rest of Fairy Tail, once the guild was disbanded. No one knew where she was, who could have possibly taken her to begin with, or how long she'd really been missing. She was sure there was an article about her disappearance, since she worked with Jason and he was a total sweetheart that promised to look out for her now that she was on her own again.

Lucy's stomach groaned loudly, but all she could do was lay there. She didn't even have the energy to move anymore, and already knew that it was only a matter of time before the bastard killed her, or let her die from dehydration and starvation. Her hands slowly slid over the floor until they were in her line of sight. The magic cancelling shackles constantly chafed her wrists and left deep purple bruises that never went away.

How many times in her life had she been shackled since running away from the Konzern? She'd lost count after the first ten. It didn't really matter now anyway. She was sure this would be the last time it ever happened.

Her flesh was raw, so raw that she'd started bleeding a month ago. He hadn't cared to help her. No, instead he made the shackles tighter and beat her until she couldn't stand any longer. The only form of assistance he'd given her was cleaning the gashes on her wrists once a week so she didn't get an infection. He took them off to clean them, but she was always too weak to do anything about it when he did.

She stopped fighting only when she couldn't move. Which explained why he didn't feed her often, and why she was allowed the scant glass of water to make sure she didn't outright die from dehydration.

Lucy winced when she tried to swallow and hopefully create the smallest bit of saliva to coat her tongue and wet her chapped lips. Instead, she only felt just how bruised she was from her captor's latest visit. How long had it been since he'd come to her cage?

There were no windows in the spacious room she was being kept in, just a vaulted ceiling with marble floors and pillars. It felt like an eternity had passed since he'd come to her, with that cruel red eye and pale tattooed face filled with loathing when he took her, but it probably hadn't been more than a day. She only knew he'd had her for two months because he made sure to tell her when another week had passed with no one coming to her rescue. She knew that he was trying to break her spirit, but that was something that could never be broken. No matter what he did to her, how he tortured or violated her, Lucy refused to succumb to that monster's whims.

Her eyes fluttered closed and opened only a moment later, and her vision cleared slightly. Just enough for her to make out the solid gold bars that kept her locked away. When she had first woken up in this place, she'd marveled at the extravagance of it all, how lavish everything was in comparison to what she'd grown accustomed to in the years since she'd abandoned the finer things in life. While the architecture of the room was magnificent—and something she would have otherwise been in awe of while she looked at the small alcoves here and there to take in every detail she possibly could—Lucy always focused on those bars.

She had thought this monster of a man would never become a reality, not with all of the effort they had put into stopping him all those years ago.

As it turned out, Rogue still succumbed to the darkness within himself after Frosch was killed in front of his eyes. He still murdered Sting and took his best friend's power for himself. He still hated Lucy, because he blamed her for Frosch's death. And that was why he'd been so intent on keeping her prisoner now. Why that future version she had encountered had been even _more_ hellbent on killing the Lucy of X791.

" _I wouldn't have lost Frosch if you weren't alive," he said when she first woke up in the cage._

What he couldn't seem to grasp was that she had _tried_ to save Frosch, and almost got killed in the process. Her magic had been almost completely depleted by that point, but Lucy had still given it everything she had to save the little Exceed. None of that mattered now though.

With the knowledge of what his future self had tried to do, Rogue's transformation into the monster warped into something far worse. He didn't try to stop the past from happening, already knowing that it was pointless because Natsu and the other mages at the games—and even Rogue himself—would stop him. Instead, he focused his attention on bringing pain to the one he thought responsible for his own anguish.

The large doors at the other end of the room silently opened, and Lucy's gaze rose until she was met with the monster again. That sadistic smirk pulled at one corner of his lips as he took long strides toward the cage. Closer and closer, yet she didn't move. She didn't have enough strength or energy to do it, even though she tried. He climbed the massive staircase that led to her cage's platform, and Lucy wondered if he would open it and come in, or just sit down on the plush throne that was right next to her golden prison. It didn't take long to figure out he was coming to her, but for what she couldn't even begin to decipher.

"Looking lovely as always, _Lucy_ ," Rogue sneered as he stepped into the cage, leaving the door propped open while he made his way further in. "Is there anything I can get for you?"

Lucy's eyes narrowed into slits while she glared at him. It was the most defiance she could muster with just how weakened her body had become, but she knew the fire hadn't left her eyes when he snarled at her. She didn't flinch when he closed the distance between them in an instant, roughly tangling one hand in her dulled golden hair and wrenching her up to kneel, limp, before him.

Rogue bowed down until his lips were mere inches from hers, and hummed when all Lucy did was continue glaring at him. He couldn't understand how her spirit hadn't broken yet, but he was about to change that. "I was going to change the current conditions you're living in, you know," he whispered. His other hand slowly reached up to brush away the recently washed blonde strands from her face. Oh, how he loved to make sure she was cleaned while she was unconscious, all in the hopes that she would wake up and realize just how long he'd been doing this. It wouldn't do if he didn't keep his little slave clean, after all. "You could have gotten out of this cage, been fed normally, all of it. With the only stipulation of staying here and doing as I see fit."

"Go…" she rasped, her voice only a wisp of what it once was from misuse. "Fuck… yourself… psycho…" Lucy's natural reaction to wince in pain when his hand tightened in her hair before she was thrown to the ground, never came. She just laid there, with her hair covering her eyes and hanging in her mouth. The short fall was bone-jarring, letting her know just how much weight she'd lost since being locked up.

"Well, while you might not appreciate the effort I put into keeping you comfortable," Rogue growled as he towered over her, "I'll be sure to bring you to my way of thinking." He turned and walked across the cage, then picked up the pitcher of water and filled a glass. The shackles bolting Lucy to the floor only reached halfway across her cage, so he made sure to keep a pitcher of water right where she could see it—that way she would always know just how close she was to getting what she needed, while still having to rely on him to provide it for her.

Lucy Heartfilia's spirit needed to be shattered. He wanted her to be just a shell of the vibrant woman he'd met at the Grand Magic Games all those years ago. _'Five years since that day,'_ he thought, _'How time flies…'_

Lucy couldn't suppress the whimper she let out when Rogue grabbed one shackled wrist and dragged her across the ground to the center of the cage. He knelt down next to her, confusing her instantly when he very carefully pulled her into his arms. Normally he would just hold her head up by her hair when he wanted her upright, so what could have possibly made him so gentle? Her head fell against his chest, rising and falling with each steady breath he took, and he hooked a finger under her chin.

"Open up and drink," Rogue whispered. He brought the glass to her lips, slowly tipping it back to let a small amount of water into her mouth. It took some time, but once Lucy had finished the glass he set it down on the floor next to him, then slowly brushed her hair from her eyes again. "Better?"

Lucy's brow furrowed in utter confusion when she looked up at him. That crazed gleam in his eye had disappeared, leaving her with the sight of the Rogue she once knew and considered a friend. Sure, his hair had changed, and there was the tattoo on his face now, but there was a certain softness to his gaze that she hadn't seen in all the time he'd had her held captive. As quickly as it appeared, that gentle gaze shattered and left only the cold and unforgiving gaze she'd come to know.

"I asked you a question," Rogue said slowly, pushing that small part of his consciousness that reared its head every once in awhile further into the darkness that had consumed him when Frosch died. That little piss-ant of a being he once was—the man that had viewed this pathetic twit as a friend and ally—gave himself up to this darkness, and he wouldn't delude himself into thinking that she was remorseful for what had happened.

When Lucy still didn't answer him, Rogue sneered and roughly grabbed her chin, digging his fingers into her hollowed cheeks until he smelled the faintest scent of her blood once he broke the skin. "Worthless bitch. You should know better than to ignore me."

Lucy knew what was coming, but it didn't make it any easier. She'd been frozen in place when she saw that glimmer of who Rogue used to be, and she wondered if maybe this wouldn't happen if she'd been able to respond.

Now though, it was too late. Even if she tried to say something, he wouldn't hear her. There was no getting through to him when he was like this.

That had been her first plan of attack concerning getting herself free—trying to talk things out and make Rogue see that she wasn't his enemy. Diplomacy had always been a great skill that she'd learned before running away, but it didn't work when talking to a psychopath. His lips descended on hers, and she felt bile rising in her throat when a predatory growl rumbled through him as his tongue plunged into her mouth.

She didn't move a muscle, not even a small twitch of her lips as he teased them with rough nips from his sharpened canines. She tasted her own blood in her mouth when he bit down harder in an effort to make her respond, but all Lucy could do was lie in his arms and think about all the ways she would love to make him stop.

In all of her life, she had never wanted to kill someone. But, the things he'd done to her. What he had made her do while she was his prisoner… Rogue was the only person that landed on the list of people she wanted to kill. While she knew it was wrong, and that he should be brought to justice for what he'd done, Lucy couldn't find it in herself to care about Fiore's version of justice any longer. He didn't seem to mind that she never actively responded, that even her body rebelled against him by staying completely unaffected by his touch. Rogue was here for one thing, and he would get it whether or not she complied. He'd weakened her to the point of immobility, and she knew that even just trying to bite him would only result in being beaten into near—sometimes full—unconsciousness before he took what he wanted anyway.

Lucy tried not to focus on the fact that he was laying her down on the floor while he kept their lips connected. She tried to block out how his hand moved from her face down to her chest, roughly pushing the top of her robe open to bare her breasts for him.

Every time this happened, Lucy disconnected from herself. She had to just so she didn't lose her mind with what was happening to her. She put up walls around herself, hummed silly little tunes in her head, or thought about the fun times she'd had back in Fairy Tail.

She thought about what it would have been like to have a man actually love her instead of just using her.

She had been in love once before, and there was a part of her that wanted to pretend what Rogue was doing was actually that man she loved so long ago. She couldn't though. Because Rogue was nothing like the man she had loved back when she was whole.

' _Whole,'_ Lucy thought sadly, _'I'll never be whole again… Not after what he's done to me…'_

"You have no idea," Rogue chuckled darkly in Lucy's ear as his thumb brushed over her nipple, "Just how glad I am that I've ruined you for anyone else. Who would have thought someone like _you_ would have been a virgin when I took you the first time…" He'd been thoroughly surprised by it, but the fact that she'd been crying and screaming had only made it even better. He loved how she'd begged him to stop, the way she screamed in agony when he slammed into her right away. Lucy had been talking back to him that whole day, and he'd finally had enough of her mouthy bullshit. He'd always had a thing for blondes, and with one bound up at his disposal, he would have been stupid not to satiate his lust.

The only real downside to his method for weakening Lucy by denying her food was that she was missing those delicious curves he'd enjoyed holding onto while he pounded into her. Her breasts were smaller, and those had actually been his favorite part. Sure, she didn't have much in the way of muscle to fight back any longer, but the definition in her muscles had been utterly mouthwatering. With another growl, Rogue caved just a little—only so he could enjoy himself more in the future—and said, "Looks like I'll need to start feeding you again. You're too skinny now."

Lucy's eyes closed while she blocked out what was happening. She hadn't necessarily been saving herself for marriage, but she had wanted to at least care about the person she gave herself to for the first time. That had been ripped away from her only two days into her captivity.

Rogue pinched and rolled her nipple between his fingers, then his hand slid down over her protruding ribs, across her much narrower waist and the skin that was stretched tightly over her hip. He only wanted her to gain weight so he could enjoy himself, not for her benefit. She already knew that he wanted to bruise her with his hands from groping her supple and plump flesh, not because she was so emaciated that he nearly shattered her bones from how he held onto her.

Rogue's hand splayed across her stomach, his fingers brushing over the tie to her robe, and all Lucy could think about was how she wished it was already over.

* * *

"You're sure," Angel whispered, turning to look at the rest of her guildmates. Her brows furrowed when she saw just how tense everyone had become.

"Yeah," Cobra whispered back. "I can hear him in there. Sounds like there's someone with him." He turned and narrowed his eye while he tried to hear the putrid soul that was inside. There was only a vague echo along with one other, both of them screaming in anguish and rage, but with the thickness of the walls in this place he couldn't get a clear read on them. The only thing that let him know Rogue was currently there, was his scent. It was fresh, and leading down the hallway they'd been following for the past few minutes. "His soul sounds fucking twisted though…"

Jellal sighed and turned to look at Meredy. "Be ready to link the two of them, Meredy," he whispered. "We don't know anything about who this might be, and if he miraculously has an accomplice, then we'll need—"

"No," Cobra said softly. "It sounds like a prisoner. He's got someone held hostage in there… And…" He frowned and took another few steps forward, rounding the corner and glaring at the double doors that led to the room holding the Slayer they were searching for at Titania's request. He focused as much as he possibly could on the occupants of the other room, and his eye widened when he heard what Rogue was saying.

 _"You're not fighting back… Does that mean you want this now?" A dark chuckle. A loud thud. A pained, feminine whimper. "You're mine to do with as I please… Filthy slut."_

Cobra turned back to see everyone watching him. He still couldn't tell who the other person was, but Rogue's intentions were very clear. Of all the shitty things he and his guild mates had done in the past, there were lines even they didn't cross. "It's a woman. We need to go _now_." He gave Angel a pointed look, knowing that she of all people would understand exactly what was going on behind that door. When her face hardened, quick flashes of her memories assaulted him while she thought about what had happened to her in the Tower. Cobra simply nodded.

That small exchange between the two was enough for the other four members that had been in the Tower together to know what was happening. Even Midnight looked ready to tear Rogue to pieces. The only ones in the dark were Jellal and Meredy, but before they could ask what they'd missed, Angel spoke up. "Sick fucker. I bet he chained her up just to rape her, too."

"Jellal," Midnight said, turning his hardened crimson gaze toward their leader, "You won't be able to stop us on this one. He's not making it out of that room alive."

"But—"

"No one fucking cares what your girlfriend wants," Cobra hissed. "Not now. That's one thing we've _never_ let go unpunished, so you'd better hope he's willing to answer your questions before we slaughter him."

The sound of metal chains sliding across stone caught everyone's attention. There was a roar of pain before a loud crack sounded through the closed doors, and everyone rushed forward. Racer was the first to reach the doors, and he dashed inside only to come to a screeching halt when he saw what lay beyond.

The entire room was white marble, with a grand staircase that led up to an opulent throne. Just off to one side stood an enormous golden birdcage that was bare aside from a small table next to the open door, and the mass of cloth over two bodies on the floor.

Cobra took in the sight of Rogue pinning a woman to the ground, the chains that held her to the cage stretched to their limit and pulling her arms taut. The small slip of fabric that he could only assume was a robe was pulled open to reveal her naked, emaciated body, and Rogue roughly pushed her legs apart to kneel between them. If that wasn't enough of a reason to want to kill the bastard, the sound of her soul gave him that push. He'd know that song anywhere, especially what it sounded like when she was being held against her will. Her thoughts filtered in, and it made his stomach churn.

 _'Just pretend it's not happening. This isn't real, it's just a really fucked up nightmare. You're somewhere far, far away. No one can touch you. Just keep thinking about something else, and it'll be over soon. And then he'll leave, just like every other time... Please let it be over soon... I wish I could fight back... I wish someone would help me… I'm going to die in this place... Sing a song, Lucy. Just ignore it all.'_

Recognition hit everyone a moment later when the woman's hand shifted. A bright pink Fairy Tail emblem proudly showed on the bony appendage. Lucy Heartfilia. They all stood in place, utterly horrified by the sight of her rail-thin body being pinned beneath the Dragon Slayer that held her down.

Lucy gathered up what little strength she had, and spit in Rogue's face just when his fingers pushed into her. There wasn't much she could do in the way of fighting him off, but she was done with being used like some cheap whore against her will. If anything, it would finally push him over the edge, and he'd kill her. With a sneer of her own, she poured every ounce of her hatred into the only two words that came to mind. "Fuck… You…"

"You're going to regret that, you little cunt," Rogue growled, lifting a hand to wipe away her saliva. "I'll make sure this hurts." He bared his teeth in a snarl when she spit on him again, tasting the blood in his mouth from when she'd bitten his tongue. A low growl that wasn't his own reverberated through the room, and Rogue slowly turned his head to see seven mages standing in the doorway, each of them glaring at him and tensed for a fight. With a wicked grin, Rogue leaned down and whispered, "Looks like you'll have to wait for your punishment, Lucy. It seems we have company."

He chuckled as he pulled his hand from her sex and licked his fingers, then stood to his feet and straightened his clothes. With a raised brow over their sudden unwelcome company's state of shock, Rogue calmly walked forward and locked the door to the cage once he was outside.

Jellal grabbed Cobra's arm when he tensed to rush into the room, and once the Slayer's eye turned to glare at him, he slowly shook his head. _"Use your poison to get her out of that cage, Cobra. We have to make sure she's alright."_

He just couldn't believe what they had stumbled on. Two months of searching for Lucy, and here she was. She looked like she was on the verge of dying, her skin pale and ashen, and the curves that she had been so well-known for giving way to the hard angles of her bones that her skin clung to. She looked like the countless slaves he remembered from the Tower, only ten times worse. It was absolutely sickening to see a form of depravity far worse than what he'd forced on innocent people back when he was possessed.

Cobra sneered and turned back to watch Rogue, stretching his magic out to keep tabs on the piece of shit that was walking toward them and the blonde in the cage. While he wanted nothing more than to tear the little two-toned fuckface to shreds, Jellal was right. Their priority had been finding Lucy to begin with.

It seemed that, even though her guild had been disbanded years ago, Erza had been keeping tabs on the whereabouts of every member. Lucy's disappearance two months prior had people searching for her high and low, and Titania had even asked Crime Sorciere to find out if Rogue was still around to request his assistance in locating the missing Celestial mage. As it turned out, searching for Rogue was the right fucking thing to do.

No one had seen Rogue or Sting since they had defeated those demons. Sting had resigned as the guild master for Sabertooth, and they had gone off to fuck only knows where. From what Cobra could tell, it seemed that the Shadow Slayer still went down the same path that led to him time traveling. No one had actually told Cobra just what had happened back when Doranbolt let him out of prison to help fight the dragons, but he heard enough to put the pieces together. Future Rogue lost his shit over something, turned evil, and decided he needed to be a king.

It was a pretty basic understanding of the events that had transpired that night, but he was fine with that.

"Rogue," Jellal said, taking a step forward and watching closely once the Slayer stopped halfway across the room. "What exactly do you think you're doing?"

Rogue's lips quirked in a suppressed smirk while he looked at the group of mages in front of him. "Why, I'm just spending some quality time with Lucy," he chuckled. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"And she's been here this whole time?" Jellal asked, clenching his jaw when Rogue's mouth spread into a devious grin.

"That's a strong possibility. You'd have to ask her…" He paused and growled low in his throat, his magic swelling around him as he prepared to kill each and every one of the mages that he could tell were trying to save the little blonde bitch. "Too bad you won't be able to get through me."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Yes, I know. It starts off dark. Maybe I should have given a trigger warning? I don't know. I usually don't use them in my stories. I expect my readers to be responsible enough to know whether they need to put a story down for their own sake, and I really don't like spoiling things. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of the edits. This story will only be eight or nine chapters, depending on how I edit the end. We'll have to wait and see.**

 **I'm posting this chapter early for _the real narnia_. I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Lucy regained consciousness after having passed out from the small bit of exertion she'd put on her tired body, and her eyes slowly opened when the acrid stench of something burning filled her nostrils. It was unlike anything she had ever smelled before. It made her stomach churn since there was nothing in it aside from a single glass of water. Those noxious fumes only got stronger the longer she laid there, and she swallowed to suppress the urge to vomit that small bit of nourishment she'd gotten.

"Cover your nose," Cobra growled, keeping his good eye trained on the ensuing battle between the rest of his guild and Rogue. The guy was way too damn powerful, and he knew that they were going to need his help on this one. Cobra might not have cared for Jellal in any sense of the word, but he knew just how strong the Heavenly Body mage was. If even _he_ was having a difficult time taking the Shadow Slayer down, then it was going to be one hell of a fight. "And maybe fix that robe so everyone's not getting an eyeful of your crotch."

Lucy frowned and slowly turned her head at the sound of that voice, her eyes widening in shock when she saw just who was talking to her. "Co... bra?" Her breath caught in her throat when he turned to look at her for a moment before turning back to watch the fight.

 _'What the hell is Cobra of all people doing here? And… is that Jellal?!'_

"Seriously, cover yourself up."

Lucy grit her teeth as she tried to roll herself over, whimpering once she had managed to get onto her side. If she'd actually eaten something recently, or even been even remotely hydrated, she probably would have had the energy to do more than just that pathetic little shift. As it was, she couldn't bring herself to move closer to the bars so she could use her hands to cover herself. It wasn't like it really mattered anyway.

 _'Not after what Rogue's done to me…'_

Cobra snarled and whirled around to glare at Lucy, only to see her shivering and curled in on herself. Her soul was so dissonant when she thought about what Rogue had done, and just the small snippets of her memories that flashed in his own head were enough for Cobra to actually lose his shit. Rage and fury the likes of which he'd never felt before swelled in him, forcing his scales to activate without him even trying.

"I know you're tired, but you've gotta cover your nose, Lucy," he said softly. He knelt on the stairs just outside the cage when her exhausted eyes opened to look at him. "I'm gonna use more poison to eat through the metal, and the fumes alone could kill you if you inhale too much."

Lucy blinked and then looked up to where her hands were bound. She could hardly move as it was. There was no way in hell she'd be able to get her head high enough to cover her nose with her hands. Her arm on the other hand… Lucy closed her eyes and turned her head, burying her nose in the slender appendage and taking shallow breaths to minimize just how much of the toxic air she was taking in.

 _'Smart,'_ Cobra thought. He reached up with both clawed hands and channeled a powerful burst of his poison right at the locking mechanism on the door. The metal bubbled and sizzled as poison ate through it, and when it was weakened enough, he sent a solid punch out to make handle crumble. He shot to his feet and opened the door to the cage, rushing inside and over to the still trembling blonde.

Before anything else, Cobra pulled his coat off and gently laid it over her to give her at least a small bit of modesty. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

"M-My… wrists."

"Okay, don't talk," Cobra said as he moved up to look at the shackles. The skin was raw and bloody where it had continuously rubbed against the metal, deep bruises stretched even further up her arms than what he'd experienced when he was in the Tower. There were more bruises on her forearms in the shape of Rogue's hands.

He couldn't stop himself from growling when he heard her thinking about how many times Rogue had tightened them since she kept losing weight, how he'd only fed her two or three times in the two months she'd been held here. Not even the bastards in the Tower had been that cruel.

The sounds coming from him cut off in an instant when she started trembling, causing the chains to rattle against the stone floor. "It's gonna be alright, Lucy," he whispered. "I'll get you outta here."

"Wh-Why… are-"

"I said don't talk." Cobra sighed when her trembling intensified, and slowly reached down to brush her hair from her face. When she looked up at him in shock, he smiled sadly down at her. "What I mean is, rest your voice. I can hear what you're thinking, so you don't need to say anything." When Lucy nodded slowly, he took a deep breath and reached up to grab the shackles.

 _"They're blocking out my magic. It's why my spirits haven't been able to open their gates and help me…"_

Cobra carefully sent his poison into the metal around her wrists, weaving it slowly with as much precision as he could manage so it didn't leak into her wounds. Once he thought he'd eroded the metal enough, he grit his teeth and tore the weakened shackles away from her. A very large part of him wished he'd kept them in place once he saw the mutilated anarchy hidden beneath the metal.

 _"That bad, huh?"_ Lucy glanced up at her wrists from watching Cobra nearly turn green when he saw them, and felt… nothing. She saw the torn flesh; how her tendons, muscles, and even small portions of her bones were exposed; how much blood was slowly seeping from the wounds. It was like looking at something in a horror movie, but it felt just as real as if that's all it was. _"That's… That's not the worst he's done, Cobra. I'll be fine…"_

Cobra didn't want to know, he _really_ fucking didn't. But he couldn't stop Lucy from thinking about it.

Apparently, aside from violating her repeatedly in any way he saw fit, Rogue had been the one to take her virginity by force.

One week later, Rogue had decided he didn't want to deal with his _slave_ getting pregnant because he couldn't keep his dick to himself. He strapped her down, and cut out whatever he needed to, so he wouldn't have to worry about a pregnancy, with only a little bit of ice to numb her stomach before he got to work.

Cobra had no clue how Lucy wasn't catatonic with the amount of trauma she'd been forced to endure, but it didn't matter right then. She was far from safe while she was still in this place, and he refused to let her down when she had clearly never given up.

"Okay, I'm gonna pick you up now," he said, already knowing that there was a scar on her abdomen and not an open wound from where Rogue had performed that disgusting surgery. "Don't freak out on me."

 _"It's okay, Cobra. I trust you."_ Lucy smiled sadly up at the Poison Slayer when he jolted and stared down at her in surprise. _"You're with Jellal and Meredy, which means you're okay in Erza's book. If she trusts you, then so do I."_

"You're pretty intuitive, y'know that?" He carefully pulled her into his arms. He readjusted his coat and buttoned it closed so there was no chance of her body being exposed, then stood up and internally frowned when he felt just how light she was.

As Cobra carried her out of the cage, Lucy leaned in closer and took a shaky breath while her emotions finally came crashing through her. Just that simple act of passing through the door she'd been staring at for months was enough to break down one of the walls she'd created to keep herself sane. She gripped his shirt and sniffled, and when he pulled her just a fraction of an inch closer, Lucy finally broke. _"It's not just the fact that they're here with you, Cobra…"_ she silently told him, _"You wouldn't have tried to help me if you didn't want to."_

Cobra nodded and crouched down behind a pillar far away from the raging battle, wincing when he heard Angel yelp in pain.

 _"He's going to slaughter them."_

"Have some faith," Cobra hissed. His eyebrow shot up in surprise when she started thinking about how difficult it had been for Natsu to defeat Future Rogue in X791, and the fact that he was stronger than Crime Sorciere knew because he'd killed Sting and taken his power.

Lucy wished that she could move so she could just go after Rogue and finish this once and for all. She would use the last of her strength to tackle his sadistic ass to the ground and snap his neck if she could. She frowned when Cobra snorted, then looked up to see him grinning down at her.

"While it's fucking hilarious to picture _you_ snapping anyone's neck, even if that cockstain deserves much worse for what he did to you, they've got this handled," Cobra said. He pulled her head back to his chest and brushed his fingers through her hair. Lucy needed him a whole hell of a lot more than his guild mates did, if the way their souls were sending out violent battle cries was any indication. "Just let it out, Lucy," he said against her hair. "I'll keep you safe, alright?"

Lucy nodded and held onto Cobra as tightly as she could manage, shrieking in terror when he quickly pinned her to the ground. Her eyes shot open in fear only to see his face hovering an inch above hers, and a brilliant white light flying mere feet above them. It was quickly followed by a shadowy claw arcing down through the air, aiming right for Cobra's back. She gasped and clenched her eyes shut, waiting for it to pierce through him and into her, but she was jostled to the side while his arms barred around her frail body. _"Please… Don't let him hurt me anymore, Cobra…"_

Cobra heard Lucy whimper as they rolled across the floor, and he pulled her along with him to hide behind another pillar while Racer and Hoteye drew Rogue's attention back to themselves. "I promise, Lucy. He won't hurt you ever again. I'll protect you." He kept her close to his chest, hearing just how quickly her heart raced while her tears soaked through his shirt. "I'll get you out of here when it's safe, okay?"

Lucy grimaced and nodded, curling herself closer to him as more explosions sounded out across the room.

 _'I can't go back in that cage… I can't… I'd rather be dead than—'_

"Shh," Cobra whispered. He brought a hand to her hair while he lowered his nose to her head once more. Even with where she's just been, she smelled heavenly. Terrified, but still heavenly. "I won't let that happen. We'll get you to a hospital once he's dead. They'll take care of you there."

His brow furrowed when the thought of doctors or scalpels being anywhere near her had her soul screeching in terror, the trembling in her limbs intensifying by the second. "They won't hurt y..."

 _'Don't leave me alone… Please, don't leave me alone… I trust you… Not them… Please… Please Cobra… Please! They'll cut me open and hurt me. All those knives and masks. Don't leave me, Cobra…'_

Lucy's grip on his shirt tightened as her silent tears fell more insistently, and Cobra sighed and shook his head. "You got it, Lucy," he said. "I won't leave you." He smiled sadly down at the head of golden hair that had lost its shine. "I'll protect you."

There was no way in hell he was going to let her down. Angel had been messed up for a while after what she'd gone through in the Tower - and she was still afraid of being alone in dark rooms because of it - but he and the rest of their little fucked up group had been there for her when she needed it.

Cobra wasn't exactly the nicest guy out there, but he'd do what he could in Lucy's case. She was a goddamn fighter, and she deserved to come back from what had happened to her.

What caught him by surprise though was the fact that, even while she was shaking like a leaf with fear pouring off of her in waves, Lucy was running through different strategies that they could possibly use based on her own knowledge of everyone's abilities. Granted, some of it was outdated, and what she considered their strongest attacks were actually further down the list as each of their own abilities increased over the years, but it was astounding just how many contingencies Lucy came up with in a matter of seconds.

 _'If none of that works, there's always Plan N,'_ Lucy thought with a fond warmth settling in her chest.

"What's Plan N?" Cobra snorted when a very clear picture of Natsu setting everything on fire painted itself in her head. Echoes of countless times every plan she'd come up with had been thrown by the wayside because the Fire Slayer couldn't control himself. "N for Natsu, huh?"

Lucy nodded. _"Plan N is essentially total destruction and mayhem. Sadly, it was always the most effective… No matter how much rent money it cost me at the time."_

The topmost portion of the pillar they were hiding behind exploded, and Lucy felt Cobra tense and push off of the ground again. They flew through the air and landed roughly on the ground, knocking the wind out of her. When her eyes opened again there was a terrifying roar that sounded across the room, and she quickly turned her head to see the other members of Crime Sorciere facing off against Rogue.

Several gashes streaked across his face and stomach, but he was still standing. Angel and Racer were on the ground, trying to stand back up and continue fighting. Meredy looked ready to pass out. Midnight was nowhere to be seen. And Jellal and Hoteye were sending attack after attack at the enraged Slayer. She saw a glint of metal on Rogue's belt, and her heart sunk when she realized the he had her keys. They weren't on the table like they had been before everyone showed up.

Cobra furrowed his brow when he saw Lucy looking over at the fight, hearing her determination to just end the battle herself. "Don't be fucking stupid," he hissed as he hovered over her. "You're not strong enough to even fucking _move,_ let alone do any damage."

 _"I might not be able to move, but I don't need to for this to work."_ Based on what she'd heard from both Erza and Natsu when they had fought against Cobra, his Soul Listening magic meant he could hear everything that happened in a person's soul - all the way down to deeply ingrained memories. She'd been told that he was able to amplify those sounds and use them to attack people, and hopefully that would be enough to get the job done.

"True, but what..." Cobra paused when Lucy slowly loosened her grip on his shirt while she smiled hopefully up at him. "It won't work."

 _"It will. Just trust me, okay?"_ When Cobra slowly nodded, Lucy took a deep breath then laced her fingers together with his. _"Does it hurt when you hear someone's pain?"_

"Depends on how much of it there is," Cobra answered as he looked down at their joined hands. "Usually, no. But with this? Most likely."

 _"I'm sorry…"_

"Don't be," he chuckled. "If it does what it needs to, I'll be perfectly fucking fine with a headache. Full disclosure though… I could throw up if it's too bad." He couldn't help but let his smile widen just a little when he heard the barest remnant of a laugh rasping from between her lips. "Do your thing."

Lucy nodded, then closed her eyes. _"Wait until he's close enough…"_ When she only heard a grunt in response, Lucy forcefully broke down the walls she'd created around the worst parts of the past two months. Everything she'd kept hidden in the darkest recesses of her heart, mind, and soul came crashing down on her, making it feel as though there was an anvil crushing her chest.

 _Raped. Violated. Tortured. Beaten._

Cobra watched as tears began streaming down her pale and harrowed face, and his head began pounding with just how loudly Lucy's soul screeched in agony.

 _No chance to bear a child. Shackled. Malnourished._

 _Rogue ripped everything from her. He took her future._

Lucy gasped when she felt that deep connection with her spirits for the first time in two months. Instead of sending her comfort like they normally would have, it seemed that each of them knew just what she was trying to do. Their pain and anguish flowed through that bond, amplifying her own when she realized that they must have been forced to watch everything she had to endure.

She tugged on all fourteen invisible threads that linked her own soul to her spirits, and whimpered when it felt like she was being ripped apart from within. She refused to stop though, and instead tapped into her Second Origin to find the power she needed. Those little threads began to glow in her mind's eye, and Lucy poured more magic into them.

' _Please… Please help me…'_

Cobra ground his teeth together when he heard Lucy's spirits. Hundreds upon hundreds of memories washed through him, filled with so much pain and suffering that he thought he'd lose his goddamn mind. If that wasn't bad enough, the memories that they all had of the events of her torture at Rogue's hands overlapped instead of combining, increasing just what he was pulling in time and time again as though they were all entirely different memories. One thing was for sure, Lucy was a goddamn genius for thinking of something like this, and the fact that she was somehow able to bring her spirits into it - even though it was giving him a splitting fucking headache - gave him hope that this would really be the end of it.

His eye widened when she didn't stop with her spirits' pain, and the air rushed from his lungs when her distant memories flowed to the surface; her childhood, every time she'd been captured and tortured while she was in Fairy Tail, and most importantly the day she'd sacrificed a key while she was fighting against that demon.

"Fuck…" he growled. "Lucy, we've gotta do it now."

She grimaced and bit her lower lip, focusing solely on pouring every ounce of herself into what they were about to do. Her spirits knew what this meant, and it only increased their own anguish. Slowly, she opened her eyes to see Cobra looking worriedly down at her. She could see how much pain he was really in, not to mention that he had a very clear picture of everything she'd gone through.

" _I'm sorry this is hurting you…"_

She tightened her grip on his hands and took a deep breath as she turned her head to face where Rogue was still fighting against Jellal. Her eyes widened when she saw what Natsu had described to her so long ago. _'White Shadow Dragon Mode?!'_ The black portion of his hair was pulled away from his eye, revealing the rest of the scar that stretched across his face, the right half of his body pitch black.

"Rogue! Help me!" she screeched, not bothering to hide how she was sobbing or caring that her throat felt like it was on fire from how loudly she'd yelled.

Rogue froze and turned to see Lucy pinned to the ground beneath that pathetic Poison Slayer. He growled as he watched Cobra's head lower to her neck, his nose and lips brushing along her skin. _No one_ touched the little bitch except for him. He'd been the only one to know every inch of her body, and he planned on keeping it that way.

He bared his teeth and began running over to rip Cobra off of his little slave, his body fueled by rage and adrenaline. She was _his_ to torture and destroy for all the pain she had caused, and he wouldn't let anyone take that away from him. The fact that she had called out to him in the first place for help only inflated his desire to rend that Slayer limb from limb; if she didn't want these people to rescue her, then clearly that meant he had finally broken her.

The closer Lucy's keys got as Rogue ran towards them, the stronger that connection with her spirits felt. The stronger their pain and sadness became. She could hear Loke's voice roaring in her head as he tried to break through his gate and protect her like he had promised to do. There was nothing to be done about it now though. This was the only way for Rogue to finally be defeated once and for all.

She kept her eyes on Rogue as he prepared an attack to take Cobra out, and sobbed as a sense of crushing despair swept over her again.

"Tell me when, Lucy," Cobra whispered directly into her ear. He had to rely on her for this one, because he couldn't focus on any other souls around him while he pulled every agonized cry from her into himself. He felt like his head was about to explode, but he had to go along with her plan now that it had started.

Closer and closer, Lucy watched as Rogue closed that distance in what seemed like slow motion. Light and Shadow magic swirled around his hand as he started the incantation for the spell he was about to use, and Lucy slammed her eyes shut. _"Now."_

Cobra opened his eye and sharply turned his head to see Rogue heading right for them. He let the dissonant screeching and wailing in Lucy's soul fill him completely, and squeezed her hands when he felt her magic swelling from her soul.

Every mournful and despairing sob, every shout of pain.

The countless hours of screaming each of her spirits remembered from the day Rogue had cut her open and taken away any hope of her having a family.

Lucy's fury that roiled deep within her, roaring to life louder than the dragon he'd faced.

He pulled all of it into himself and sent it out in a cacophonous shockwave, hitting Rogue dead on. Normally, Cobra only used bursts of his Sound magic to toy with his opponents, but this time was different. He kept pushing those sounds out, adding in his own pain and suffering from the years of torment in the Tower, his own guilt and anguish over the things he wished he could change.

Lucy's body tensed, her grip on Cobra's hands tightening as a strangled sob escaped her. The attack they sent out was deafening, but she still opened her eyes when she heard Rogue scream and drop to the ground. She watched as he writhed in pain from Cobra's multicolored waves of soul sounds. He clawed at his face, and tore into the wounds the others had already inflicted on him. When his eye locked onto hers, she sneered. "Burn in hell, you son of a bitch."

With a dark chuckle, Cobra sent out a stronger burst of his magic and watched with a sick sense of pleasure as Rogue's head quite literally exploded. Little bits of brain and fragments of his skull flew in every direction, some of it landing only a few feet away from himself and Lucy. He cut off his magic, watching as Rogue's body laid twitching on the ground, then chuckled triumphantly and turned to look down at Lucy.

His laughter died in an instant when he saw her, all of the air rushing from his lungs and his head swimming. Blood poured from her ears, nose, and mouth, and her heart was beating much slower than it should be.

 _'I knew it would be this way… I gave it everything I had… Rogue's… He's really dead…'_

"Lucy?" Cobra whispered, earning only a tremulous and watery smile in response. He heard it all, what he had somehow missed before. Channeling her spirits' pain the way she had, it hadn't only used up her magic. It had sucked the very life out of her. "No…"

After how hard she'd fought. After everything she had gone through at that bastard's hands… She didn't deserve to die.

But what the hell could he do? With her bony hands still clasped in his, so cold and fragile, he wasn't sure if he could even let her go to try and help her. How could he even help her in the first place?

She was so small, lying there beneath him. But this wasn't supposed to happen. They'd won, and now she was bleeding out in his arms.

What the fuck was he supposed to do?

It wasn't often that Cobra allowed himself to rely on others. It had never really been the kind of person he was. Even though it had been years since he and the others had gotten out of prison and had started working with Jellal and Meredy, he'd been adamant about not using anyone as a crutch. He was still Cobra, after all. Still the famed Poison Dragon Slayer, feared by quite a few people, even if his reputation was becoming little more than scary campfire stories by this point.

But when he looked down into Lucy's dulling eyes and saw the bloody, trembling smile she gave him, he didn't know what the fuck he could do anymore. All the confidence he had disappeared, and for the first time in a great many years, he felt just like a small, scared little boy.

And just like that, he knew he couldn't do this alone.

"Jellal!" Cobra shouted. She coughed and his eye didn't close when her blood spattered on his cheeks. "Jellal, help! Hurry!"


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: This one is shorter, but it's the last of the 2015 entries before I start mixing both 2015 and 2016 to make a more linear story.**

 **Important Author Note: I live in Tampa, FL, and with Hurricane Irma coming in the next couple days, there's a lot up in the air. We're not evacuating, and we've taken precautions to protect ourselves and our home. I hope any of my readers living in this storm's path are staying safe. After the storm passes, I'll post an update on the end of** ** _this_ chapter to let you guys know that I'm safe. I wanted to get this posted for you guys so it's not sitting in my doc manager, just in case I'm caught in the storm and stuck without power and internet for a while. Please be safe, everyone.**

* * *

Jellal finished inspecting the large chunk of stone that had pinned Midnight's leg to the floor near a wall. "Alright, Angel and I can lift this," he said, getting into position and motioning for her to follow his lead. "Midnight, let us know when you can start moving, but be careful."

"Sure." Midnight bit his black painted lips and propped himself up on his hands, more than ready to pull himself free once the heavy stone was high enough. He should have been paying more attention, but having heard Lucy scream from across the room, he'd been distracted. Just that split second to look over and see Cobra carrying her in his arms - with that familiar white, fur-lined coat wrapped around her - while he dove away from a stray attack from Rogue. That was all it took for a deflected attack of Jellal's to crash into the wall and send enormous chunks of stone and dust crashing to the ground.

It was stupid, but now that Rogue was dead and beheaded, they were trying to regroup and get the hell out of there.

"Jellal!" Cobra bellowed across the large room. His voice sounded off to Midnight, but then the stone above his leg shifted and he tried to pull his foot free to no avail.

"Let's hurry," Angel huffed. "Lucy needs a doctor."

"I know," Jellal said. He groaned while putting more effort into lifting the stone.

"Jellal, help!" Cobra shouted. "Hurry!"

Midnight's eyes went wide at the trembling sound of his friend's voice. "Jellal, go," he said urgently. In all the time he had known Cobra, Midnight had _never_ heard him sound so scared. The debris finally lifted enough for him to get his leg out from beneath it and he scrambled backwards, uncaring of how the floor scraped against his palms or the pain in his knee, or even the tingling in his toes.

"Jellal!" Cobra's voice ricocheted across the room, spurring the guild leader into action. "Please! Please, help!"

Angel threw Midnight's arm over her shoulder and helped him limp out from behind the fallen pillar, and they stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Cobra hovering over Lucy on the ground.

"Lucy, stay with me," Cobra whimpered, pulling a trembling hand up to her cheek and brushing away the hair that had fallen over her eyes.

He had to think of some way to save her. Lucy didn't deserve to die after everything she'd gone through, after all the times she'd been on the right and just side of a fight. She was one of the good guys. Weren't they supposed to win in the end? Isn't that what all those fucking storybooks said time and again? "You can't just… You can't fucking die on me."

He had so much he wanted to say to her. He wanted to apologize for what happened all those years ago. Sure, it was a little late, but he'd never taken the time to do it and now… Now, fate was trying to be a goddamn cosmic cunt and take away the one person in the world that made literally _everyone_ she encountered smile. What kind of sick, twisted bastard does that? All of this was wrong on so many levels, and he couldn't even begin to figure out what he could do to help her. _'I wish she'd been able to get to know the real me…'_

"It's… too late for me," Lucy rasped.

"No!" Cobra didn't pay attention to the fact that everyone else was slowly making their way closer to him, that Jellal had actually listened and had come rushing to his aid. Deep down, he knew there wasn't anything he could do to save her, but he just couldn't bring himself to accept it. "Don't die…"

"Holy shit," Midnight whispered, finally getting a good look at Lucy as he and Angel came to stand by Jellal. How the hell was she even still alive? If it wasn't bad enough that she was about to be raped when they'd come in, and had obviously been tortured worse than any of them could imagine - not including Cobra's ability to actually hear and possibly see it - the sight of the Poison Slayer so completely devastated had Midnight at a loss for what to do.

They had to do something though, right? Sure, she was emaciated to the point that he was sure one wrong breath would be the end of her. And the amount of blood seeping from her nose and ears and mouth was definitely not a good sign. But there had to be something they could do. Anything.

Jellal knelt down next to Meredy when she collapsed to her knees, quietly whispering to herself that they couldn't let Lucy die. He could feel it though, and he knew that Cobra could as well. Lucy didn't have much longer to live. And there wasn't a damn thing they could do to stop it. He pulled the Maguilty mage into his arms, letting her curl into his chest while she started sobbing.

Lucy slowly blinked, wincing when pain lanced through her body. Every joint and muscle ached as the damage Rogue had caused finally caught up with her. The scar across her stomach burned, reminding her of the pain that she'd endured when he cut her open.

"I never got to tell you." Cobra's voice wavered and his hands shook while he tried in vain to keep his emotions in check. "Please, Lucy. Don't die…"

When she looked up at Cobra again, she frowned when she saw the scared and desperate look in his eye. _'Tell me what?'_ she thought absently.

He took a shaky breath when he heard Lucy's soul calling out to the ones she loved, sending out its final farewells to those that couldn't be with her in the end. No matter what he wanted to say to her, Cobra could feel it deep within his soul. She needed something to hold onto. Something familiar. No matter how she'd accepted her fate, he could hear that she was still scared, deep down.

"Gimme her keys," he said softly, seeing fresh tears welling in her eyes when Angel gently pressed them into her open hand several moments later. "They're right here with you, Lucy. You're not alone. They're right here."

Why couldn't things have worked out differently? He felt so stupid for wasting so much time before, knowing that he could have been one of the people that she considered a friend even though he'd hurt her in the past. This was the only chance he was going to get, and he didn't plan on wasting it.

Still, when he tried to speak, he found himself sniffling and tears burning his only eye. But he could be strong. He had to be. "I'm sorry for what happened before," he whispered as the tears welling in his good eye spilled over and trickled down his cheek.

It wasn't the right time, but she had to know. He'd kept everything to himself for so long. Too fucking long. And maybe it was selfish of him to do it right then, but he had to.

"I've loved you for so long," he said. It tore at his heart to see the way her eyes brightened just a little. Why the hell had he never told her before? Why had he always been so fucking scared to get closer to her? When he tried to speak again, it took more effort than ever before in his life to make a single, coherent sentence. "L-Lucy, please don't die."

Lucy's breath caught in her throat, and she slowly pulled her other hand from his and brought it to his cheek, her fingers shaking as she caressed the scar over his eye. _"I wish you'd told me sooner…"_

She could see it in the way he was looking at her, how distraught he was by the prospect of her no longer living, that he was being sincere. She wished she had more time, but she could feel her life slowly ebbing away. Why couldn't she have had the chance to get to know the man that could look at her like this? To know what it was like for someone to love her and care for her as more than just a friend or guild mate?

The evil Cobra she'd heard about, the one she'd briefly seen all those years ago, was nothing like the man above her. The old Cobra wouldn't have helped to free her from that cage, or carried her and protected her when she was too weak to do it herself. But this Cobra did all of those things. He'd promised to care for her, to protect her… Why did it have to end now?

"Me too," he sniffled. Regret flowed through him while he listened to Lucy's thoughts mirroring his own. She wanted to know him the same way he did. So much time had been wasted, and now they wouldn't get that chance. When the faintest whisper of a thought concerning how long he'd loved her filtered in, Cobra whispered, "The Clock… I-I… I should have…"

He whimpered when Lucy's eyes fluttered closed for longer than normal, and desperately pressed her hand to his cheek when it started to slide away from him. He couldn't miss a single touch from her. Not if this was going to be the last time he ever got to see her.

Lucy's keys warmed comfortingly, and her eyes slowly opened again, her vision blurring here and there. She furrowed her brow and blinked repeatedly until she was able to see Cobra's indigo gaze staring down at her. She wanted to fight against the fog creeping in, feeling her breathing becoming more labored as time ticked onward. "M-My keys," she said, struggling to find the breath to get her words out. "Give them to… Yukino. She'll take good care of them."

Angel gasped and found herself being pulled into Midnight's arms. She knew now that she had wronged the spirits she'd once held contracts with, but the fact that Lucy was going to give those spirits to her younger sister filled her with pride and a deep sadness. She'd figured out while they were still locked up in prison that the young blonde was one of the kindest Celestial mages out there, and in the past few years she'd come to realize that Yukino's desire to become a Celestial mage was because of Lucy. If Lucy trusted Yukino with the care of her spirits, then Angel would ensure they made it to her. It was the least she could to do make it up to them - helping them get to a new friend, and not some sick master.

Cobra shook his head quickly, fear seeping into his veins and chilling him to the bone. He didn't want to lose her, not when he'd finally told her how he felt. "N-No, we'll find a way to-"

"Please…" Lucy watched as Cobra's lips trembled while he visibly forced himself to nod, then gave him the brightest smile she could manage. "I was... born in a cage. At least… I didn't die in one, too… Th-Thank you, Cobra. I'm… I-I'm free…"

The first sob wracked Cobra's body when Lucy used the last of her strength to lift her other hand to his head and pull it down to hers. As soon as their lips connected, he poured every ounce of the love he'd held for her for years into that kiss. Her lips moved so passionately over his, taking his breath away with the intensity of it.

He could hear her soul singing a sweet lullaby that was filled with happiness, and it only made him want to be closer to her. To stop time completely so he could just stay like this with her forever. Her pain and fear disappeared completely, leaving only the song he'd heard from her so long ago when he fell in love with the radiant woman in his arms. Lucy's soul soared high into the heavens when her tongue slid out to meet with his, and he willingly gave in to his desire to experience everything he possibly could before she left him forever.

He'd been an idiot for not telling her how he felt before. For not seeking her out so they could get to really know one another.

Cobra had no clue how much time had passed before her lips slowed along with her heart. The grip on his hair loosened slightly. Still, he couldn't let her go. Not yet. Not when he'd just found the happiness he'd been seeking for so long. Not when he realized that he was doing the same thing for her, and making her feel complete. He listened to those last echoes of her soul, to the way she seemed to whisper only to him. Her own thoughts were still there in fragments, but he was able to see the woman Lucy was deep down.

She was vibrant and beautiful, with kind and compassionate eyes, a heart that engulfed everyone she met, and a wild fire in her soul that didn't take no for an answer. She was smart and funny, and everything he'd ever wanted in a woman. That image he saw of her was the way she was supposed to look, healthy and nearly glowing while she stood in the sunlight with a gentle wind whipping through her golden hair. The smile on her lips was only for him, the way she sighed his name saved only for his magic to pick up.

Her truest feelings were rooted so deeply in her soul that he couldn't blame himself for missing it before. He'd never wanted to pry into this part of her the few times they'd been in the same vicinity in the last few years. He'd respected her too much, cared for her too much, to betray her. Because Cobra had longed to have her soul open up to him of her own accord. Just as it was doing for him right then.

He knew her final moments were coming, so he delved even deeper. It didn't really take much, since the soul of a dying person was already so open, but he wanted to know the deepest parts of the woman that he was about to lose forever. And he could feel her soul winding around his magic, pulling him ever closer.

 _'So this is what love is like… I wish I'd told him sooner…'_

 _Lucy looked up as she was being absorbed by the clock, anger filling her that these people would do something so despicable with no remorse for their actions. Midnight, Cobra, and Angel ignored her completely as they spoke, but just before the other two left Midnight alone with her, Cobra's single amethyst eye locked onto hers._

 _Everything stopped for her in that moment._

 _She suddenly saw past his scowling face and posture that radiated tension. There was something hidden just beneath the surface, something that she could see he was trying to hide. Pain and loneliness. If she hadn't seen it in her own reflection so many times before, she probably never would have noticed it. He looked lost, like this whole thing was something he had been dragged into against his will, but there was no other option for him._

 _That was just silly though. He'd chosen to follow through with this plan. He could have refused it._

 _But Lucy knew what she'd seen. Reluctance. Pain. Why was he hurting so much? Why couldn't anyone else see it? Didn't the other members of his guild care that he felt this way?_

 _As he turned away from her, Lucy found herself wishing that she could be the one to take that pain away from him. She wasn't physically strong like everyone else she knew, even like Cobra himself, but what she lacked in physical strength, she made up for emotionally. Her heart went out to the maroon-haired mage as he left the room with Angel. If given the chance, she was willing to take his pain away. She couldn't explain why she felt so compelled to help someone that was assisting in Midnight's diabolical scheme, but that small moment that she had been able to see the man beneath the mask was all it took for her to come to a startling realization. She could save Cobra from a life of misery, pain, and loneliness. If given the chance, she would do it in a heartbeat. Lucy lowered her head as Midnight turned around, closing her eyes and silently praying that she would get to see that indigo eye again._

 _'One day, Cobra… One day, I'll set you free. I promise…'_

One last breath escaped her lips as Lucy's memory faded along with her soul, and Cobra pulled it into himself, wanting just one small part of the beautiful woman he'd lost to be with him forever. She stilled and her hands fell to the ground, her keys dropping and clanging in the otherwise silent room.

Cobra's body trembled while he gave her one last small kiss. His heart shattered into millions of pathetic little pieces with the knowledge that the one woman he'd ever loved, that had apparently loved him just the same all this time, was gone. He hadn't saved her like she had wanted to do for him. They could have saved each other from the years of pain that followed that day with that stupid clock, but he had failed. He hadn't protected her, when he'd sworn he would. Everything he had ever wanted in life was in shambles, and he could hear his own soul - for the first time in years - wailing desperately as it tried in vain to latch onto hers.

If only he could catch her soul before it left. If only he had the power to hold onto her with his own soul, to bring her back to him. But there was no song ringing from her any longer. There were no thoughts. No memories. She was empty and lifeless, and he hadn't done a goddamn thing to stop it from happening. He'd held her, cried over her, begged her not to go, but it had all been in vain. What else could he possibly have done?

Why couldn't she have stayed with him?

' _Why does everyone I love leave me?'_

Despair clutched at the hole in his chest, and he tore away from her lips to roar his anguish to the heavens with all the power he could possibly muster. Once his voice died out, Cobra collapsed and openly sobbed, not caring in the slightest that he wasn't alone. Every hope and dream he'd had over the years crumbled. His only chance at happiness was gone, and there was nothing he could do to bring her back. His own soul screamed so loudly that he couldn't hear anyone else's while they watched him, frozen in the face of such despair coming from the man they had all thought of as unflappable and heartless, even after all this time.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry for the long delay on this. Things are very strange right now, and I'm stuck in this weird limbo feeling. This is the beginning of the 2016 entries. For the people who read the original versions, don't forget that this story is now more linear, so there will be mixes of 2015 and 2016 from this point forward, instead of jumping randomly like I did for the original prompts.**

* * *

 _ **2016 - Eternity**_

 _ **Without a Cage**_

* * *

Lucy's eyes opened to find a bright blue sky filling her vision. It took a moment to realize she was lying on her back, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Instead, her head turned slightly, just enough to see rolling fields that stretched far into the horizon. It was oddly nostalgic. She couldn't put her finger on why she felt like she'd been there before, and the last thing she remembered was…

Cobra's lips on hers. His pleas for her to stay with him. Killing Rogue after she was freed from the golden cage.

There was no pain any longer. She felt rejuvenated, healthy, ready to take on the world. Except, as she slowly sat up and looked down at herself, she found that the weight she'd lost from malnutrition had been restored. Lucy was surprised to see that she wasn't wearing the sheer pink robe he'd forced her to wear. Instead, her clothing was normal. A black miniskirt and pale pink tube top. Her favorite pair of brown boots. Her hands lifted to her head, and she felt the soft strands of blonde hair had been pulled into low pigtails.

She was drawn back to the memory of kissing Cobra again and again, but there was still a smile on her lips. The memory was sad, she knew that, and she wished more than anything that she could be with him right then. But Lucy could feel it. She'd felt his love for her in that kiss. For just a single moment, she'd felt pure love from another person. How could it be a sad memory when he'd given her such a beautiful gift?

A gust of wind brushed by, her hands lowered slowly, and she smiled down at the sight of her pink Fairy Tail guild mark. The only things missing were her keys and whip. But she knew Yukino was taking care of her spirits now. They were safe.

Sounds in the distance drew her attention, and Lucy stood up and started making her way over the vibrant emerald grass. In the distance stood a small cluster of trees, providing shade to a group of people that she could hardly see. There was no point in hesitating though. She made her way over, hoping to find someone to talk to so she wouldn't have to be alone here.

She knew where she was, but that didn't make it any less scary to her. The thought that she would be in the afterlife by herself was unnerving. It seemed, though, that this place was just where she needed to be. The people she came upon were ones familiar to her.

She knew that bright blue hair set over stern brown eyes. She knew the head of pink hair hanging in ringlets past those feminine shoulders. There was no way she could ever forget the white and black hair that reached his thin hips.

Lucy's eyes widened and a bright peal of laughter crashed through the otherwise silent air and the quiet murmurs of the group. Her legs couldn't carry her fast enough as she bounded toward them, and it didn't matter to her in the slightest as she bowled over the nearest person. "Sorano!"

"L-Lucy?!" Her eyes nearly bulged from her skull while Lucy laid on top of her. "What are you doing here?"

She drew back, her smile still in place. "Well, I'm dead," she giggled. She had no idea how long she'd been there, if there was a huge time difference between the afterlife and Earthland. Maybe it had already been years in Earthland, and something had happened to the mages, something that had killed them. "And I can only assume we're in-"

"No, I get that… Jellal and us… We're… Why are _you_ here, though?" Sorano forced herself to take a deep breath as tears blurred her vision. "You're a good person…"

"So are you," Lucy frowned.

Macbeth took a step forward, hesitant to get too close to the women on the ground. "Maybe this is our punishment," he sighed, looking down at them. "We didn't save her. We didn't even know Cobra loved her, but…"

"All those times he'd disappear," Sawyer said hesitantly.

"We should have seen it," Richard sighed.

Jellal nodded slowly, turning to look out across the rolling fields. "Yes, this must be our way to atone."

"Wait," Lucy said, her brows furrowing while looking at the group around her. "What are you even thinking right now?"

"We're in hell," Sorano said. "We deserve it. After everything we've done? This is it…"

A gentle smile lifted Lucy's lips, and she shook her head while helping Sorano sit up. She pressed their foreheads together. "You're not in hell," she said. "It doesn't matter what you did in the past, okay? You spent years in Crime Sorciere doing so much more good in the world than anyone would have imagined you were capable of."

The group of mages slowly turned to stare down at Lucy, and Meredy's eyes watered while she moved to kneel beside them. "You… You really think so?"

With a watery laugh, Lucy wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I know so, Meredy. You guys… You've all done wonderful things, and you've more than made up for the mistakes you made."

The other mages stood breathlessly for a moment before Macbeth finally dropped to his knees and pulled the suddenly stunned blonde into his arms.

"Macbeth?" Jellal frowned. "What are you-"

"I'm so sorry," he whispered into her golden hair. "For everything we did. A-And I'm sorry we couldn't stop him."

Lucy sighed and embraced him just as tightly. "No one could have known Rogue had me, Macbeth," she said. "It's-"

"No," he insisted. "I mean, yes. I'm sorry for that, but… I-It's Cobra."

She stilled then as he looked into her eyes, taking in his appearance for the first time and seeing that he wasn't wearing any makeup, that his lips were a barely visible pink instead of deep black, and his crimson eyes held a tenderness she'd never noticed. "Cobra?" she whispered. Her eyes cut away from his to see everyone wearing matching somber expressions. She scanned the group, her happiness falling when she didn't see the Poison Dragon Slayer with them. "Where is he?"

As one, everyone knelt on the ground, surrounding her. No one knew what they could say, but it was Macbeth who found his voice first. "After you died," the once-Reflector mage sighed. "Cobra lost it. He… He killed us."

"What? No! He wouldn't…" There was no way Cobra could have done that. Lucy knew the kind of man he was, deep down. There might have been a lot they didn't know about one another, and she knew that he wasn't always considered one of the good guys. But one thing she'd learned about him rather quickly - just from the few times they'd seen each other in passing through the years - was that he was loyal to the ones who were closest to him. He never would have teamed up with the Oracion Seis a second time if he didn't think they were worth being around. "You're his friends!"

"He did," Sorano said. "He blamed us for you dying, I guess. He didn't really say much."

"I remember him crying though," Meredy added, looking down at where her hands were fisted in her lap. "He was crying so much. I-I've never seen him do that."

"No one has," Sawyer said. "Cobra doesn't cry."

"H-He…" Lucy felt tears welling in her eyes while she looked from one person to the next. "But… I knew what was going to happen. I didn't want to leave him, but…"

Macbeth pulled her tighter against his chest as the first tears trickled down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry, Lucy…"

"I… I have to see him…"

"What?" Jellal asked, turning sharply to stare at her. "I don't think you can, Lucy. We don't know how anything here works, if we're cut off from everyone or…"

A gentle step sounded just behind the tree they were sitting under, and Lucy slowly raised her head to see who else had joined them. Her breath died in her throat and a wide smile danced across her lips. "M-Mama?"

"Come with me, dear," Layla smiled. "There's something you need to see…"

* * *

Vibrant red water swirled around the drain while Cobra rinsed the blood from his tanned hands. His claws scraped roughly over his flesh in frantic, desperate swipes. He had to get the blood off. "What did I do?" he rasped. "What's wrong with me?"

He looked in the mirror, gasping and quickly swiping away the blood that surrounded his mouth and reached up to his cheeks and pointed ears. What in the fuck had he done? Why couldn't he remember anything?

Why the hell was some of the blood dried and crusted beneath his claws with more fresh blood coated over it? This wasn't right. It couldn't be right. He wasn't like this anymore. This wasn't him. It just… It couldn't be.

He looked back down at his hands, at the leathery scales reaching from his fingertips to his elbows, and shuddered in disgust while shutting off the faucet. He could taste the blood though. It was everywhere. Some old, some new, and so coppery. So familiar.

Bile quickly rose in the back of his throat and his eye slammed shut while the contents of his stomach went flying into the sink. Once it started, he couldn't stop himself. And when his teary eye finally opened, all he could see was more blood and chewed up bits of meat that he couldn't remember eating.

He was losing it though. That had to be it. But it wasn't like he really knew what to do with himself anymore. Every day for the past week, all he could think about was feeling Lucy's trembling lips and the fire in their only kiss. Thinking about her made his chest ache. It made it so hard to get out of bed in the morning. Or the evening, sometimes. He hadn't been able to really move those first few days.

He'd been moving lately though. His gaze lifted to the mirror once more, honing in on the emptiness reflected back at him. The dark circle under his eye from going too long without real sleep. The hollow indigo eye staring back at him.

He hated all of it. Was this the man she fell in love with? This pathetic husk of shit? He wasn't strong enough to keep her alive. He wasn't smart enough to know she needed him in the first place. His magic failed him when he didn't hear what was going to happen to her. He should have fucking known! If he'd known, he would have helped her. He would have told her to stop pushing so fucking hard, and he would have used his own fucking pain to supplement hers.

He could have done it all differently.

If he hadn't been such a sappy fucking bastard, if he'd only kept his cool, he could have saved her. He _could_ have latched onto her soul with his own and dragged it back to the surface. They could have gotten her to a hospital. He would have spent the rest of their lives showing her that there was still good in the world, loving her every single fucking day.

He could have been happy. _They_ could have been happy. And when she woke up from a nightmare, screaming and crying and begging for the phantoms in her mind to leave her alone, he would have been there to hold her and kiss away her fears.

With a growl, his bloody fist sailed toward the mirror and shattered it in a single hit. He didn't care about the way his skin split across his knuckles. That didn't matter.

He didn't want to see himself anymore. Because no matter how many times he questioned what was wrong with him, he knew the truth. "I'm Cobra," he snarled at his reflection. "This is all I'm good for…"

He nearly ripped his clothes while pulling them off and setting them to soak in the sink, then stepped into the shower. The soap was lathered and washed the grime from his body. It didn't matter how rough he was or how dirty he'd gotten in the past few days. He needed to wash it all away. His hair and face and under his nails. He scrubbed and scrubbed until his skin was raw, and then he kept scrubbing until the water had his teeth chattering.

Once finished, Cobra made his way into the next room with his maroon hair dripping down onto his shoulders and a towel around his hips. The apartment wasn't that large, but it was more than he needed. The far wall was plastered with pictures of everyone from Fairy Tail, little multi-colored strings leading from one piece of information to the next. Old newspaper clippings were covered by newer pictures with holes from moved pushpins covering the map of Fiore. There were even a few mages in other kingdoms, from what he gathered.

"You never gave up, did you?" he whispered, letting his fingers lightly trail over Magnolia. Right in the center of the town was a picture of her guild from X791. It had been so long since then. She'd spent years tracking everyone's movements, keeping them close to her heart the only way she could.

He was sure they'd already collected her body from Rogue's torture palace. He was sure the funeral was a beautiful thing. He hadn't been able to hear what was being said from his hiding place in the bell tower of Kardia Cathedral that day, but when he'd looked down at Fairy Tail and saw the large gathering of mages wearing black, he knew it was everything she deserved to have in her remembrance.

"I won't hurt them, Lucy. Your family is safe from me…"

They were probably hunting him down already. He didn't care though. No one with that guild mark would be hurt by him. They were her family, the ones she loved even though she kept her distance.

Slowly, Cobra turned away from the map with its multi-colored strings and made his way to the bed. His clothes were still soaking in the bathroom, so all he could do was remove the towel from his hips and crawl beneath the blanket, then bury his nose in the pillow that still held her scent.

"Why did you have to leave me?" He breathed in as deeply as possible, pulling the pillow down to his chest. "Lucy…"

* * *

Lucy sniffled quietly, smiling as her tears fell down and caused small ripples in the pool she was watching. "Cobra," she whispered. "Don't you know I'm here with you? You don't have to do this…"

The fact that he was living in her old apartment in Crocus made her heart melt. The lives he was taking, she knew was his only way of coping. He didn't have his friends to help him any longer. Cobra had murdered them in his blind rage right after she'd died, and now he was truly alone. The Poison Dragon Slayer had cut ties with everyone, and there was nothing for him to live for. Lucy had learned from Macbeth and the others just how proud he was though, and that he would never be able to kill himself. He just couldn't.

"Lucy," Macbeth sighed. "You're still watching him?"

"I'll always watch him," she laughed, swiping away her tears. "I still love him."

"I know," he chuckled. Slowly, he moved to sit next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "It's just that we hate seeing you cry, and seeing him like this…"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I can't help but cry when I see what he's doing, but… I get it, in a way."

"You… do?"

She nodded quickly, letting her eyes slide closed while resting her head on his shoulder. "From what you guys have told me about him, Cobra doesn't have very much going for him as far as people he loves. And every time someone has loved him, or he's loved them, they're taken away. His parents, Cubellios, then me. And you guys, too…"

"We weren't that important to him," Macbeth chuckled.

"I think you were," she said. "And you still are. I watch him sleeping, too. Did you know Cobra talks in his sleep?"

Macbeth shook his head with a smirk. "Cobra never slept around any of us. He was always awake if someone else was."

"Well, he does," she sighed. "Sometimes he's having nightmares about that day. Sometimes he's crying. But… He's always whispering someone's name. You, Sorano, Jellal, Meredy… Or me."

"Still, I think you should spend less time watching him. Your parents invited us over to the waterfall for dinner. Maybe-"

"Mama and Papa will understand," Lucy smiled. "She watched over Papa until he died. It's why she showed this place to me."

"You Heartfilia women are ridiculous sometimes," he laughed. "But, I guess it's a good thing that someone loves him as much as you do."

"I'd say so." She sat forward after he kissed her hair and walked off, touching her fingers to the water and watching as it rippled before revealing Cobra again. "I'll watch over you, Cobra," she whispered to the Poison Slayer, watching as he sent out a wild roar filled with poison and eroded the skin from a group of women and children in a homeless shelter. "You're hurting so much now… I wish I was still there for you…"

* * *

 _"I've loved you for so long... L-Lucy, please don't die..."_

 _"I wish you'd told me sooner…"_

 _"M-My keys… Give them to... Yukino. She'll take good care of them."_

 _"Th-Thank you, Cobra. I'm… I-I'm free…"_

 _One last breath escaped her lips as Lucy's memory faded along with her soul, and Cobra pulled it into himself, wanting just one small part of the beautiful woman he'd lost to be with him forever. She stilled and her hands fell to the ground, her keys dropping and clanging in the otherwise silent room._

Cobra's eye snapped open and he collapsed to the floor after vaulting from the bed to run from his nightmare. The only problem was that he woke up in another one. Real life, living without the blonde while surrounding himself with her in every way he could, was his nightmare.

But he couldn't find the tears to cry over her anymore. Cobra missed Lucy more every day, and he knew it was driving him insane. He was desperate to fill the void she'd left in his soul, and the only thing that could sate his ever-present need was the blood he cleaned from himself every night.

"Snap the fuck out of it," he sneered, glaring down at the moonlit scars on his wrists from his time in the Tower. "She's gone… She can't come back, and even if she could…"

He shuddered as a sudden warm breeze fluttered through the window he hadn't known was open. Odd. Cobra made sure they were always closed. He'd nailed the fuckers shut to make it so he wouldn't be tempted to open them. It was easier that way. If the drapes were always drawn and the windows always shut, there was no chance the people searching for him would be able to see him.

He knew that he was thinking about Lucy more lately simply because he'd seen Yukino. The keys that were never more and a foot away from him had warmed while he'd faced off against the Celestial mage. It was the only time someone had found him that he'd let them get away. He wasn't going to kill Yukino; for Lucy's sake, the Celestial mage got a pass. It seemed her keys knew the promise that had been made, that Lucy's dying wish was for them to have Sorano's little sister as their master.

He just couldn't let them go yet. The pouch bearing the Fairy Tail emblem still held the faint traces of her scent. It was mostly gone from her apartment after him living there for nearly three months, but every once in a while he would catch it. Almost as though Lucy was there with him.

Without thinking, Cobra crawled back into Lucy's bed, wrapping himself in the pink comforter while pulling her keys out from under the pillow. He brought the pouch to his nose and pulled in a deep breath, frowning as he tried to picture her smile again. Her voice.

The way she had sounded in her soul the day he'd lost her.

"Lucy," he sighed. "I wish you were here… I can't stop." He didn't want to stop. He didn't really want anything anymore. Without Lucy, Cobra was empty. Not even Kinana could help him. She didn't remember being Cubellios anyway, and he'd forced himself to keep her at a distance over the years so that she could have the life she really deserved. Cobra was toxic. His presence brought nothing but pain and destruction to the ones around him. Kinana deserved better than that. She didn't deserve to have people questioning her loyalty if he tried to go to her for help. He didn't want her fucking help anyway.

It wasn't like she knew who he was.

"Would you really still want to be with me?" he whispered against the key pouch. "With everything I've done… All this pain… It sounds so beautiful."

His eye slid open when another breeze brushed across his cheek and the keys in his hand warmed slightly.

"I know," he yawned. "You want to go to Yukino. You'll get to be with her someday. I just…"

" _We understand, Cobra,"_ Capricorn whispered.

" _You can't let Lucy go,"_ Aries said.

" _We miss her, too,"_ came Virgo's solemn voice.

" _If we were with Yukino, maybe we could come out to help you though,"_ said Leo.

" _You wouldn't be so alone anymore…"_ said Cancer.

He shook his head, sighing heavily as the odd echoes of her spirits' voices vibrated through the warm keys. He didn't know why they were still able to connect with him, but it only happened when he was having an especially strange night.

"Lucy, wherever you are… Don't wait around for me. Go be happy. I don't deserve your love anyway."

His eye widened when a third breeze had the window above the bed slamming shut. The glass shattered inward and then froze in the air around him. An odd glow appeared behind him, in the center of the bedroom, and Cobra turned to look over his shoulder at the strange golden humanoid shape.

The scent of lilies in the rain filled his lungs, and the brilliant glow shined more brightly while moving toward him.

"Don't say that," it sighed.

"Y-You're…" This wasn't fucking right. It couldn't be what he was thinking. "Why do you sound like her?"

A limb reached out and paused just before brushing over his cheek, then pulled back. "When your time comes… Ask for her."

He couldn't breathe, even though he wanted to. "Wh-Why do you sound like Lucy?!"

"She wants to save you."

That was bullshit. Lucy didn't want anything anymore. She was dead. She was far the hell away from him, happy and peaceful in heaven. It was the only thing that made sense, as far as he was concerned. She didn't deserve to burn in hell like he did. She didn't deserve the pain she'd been put through before she'd died. Lucy deserved to have endless days of sunshine and happiness.

He'd never believed a place like heaven existed until she died. Maybe it was his way of consoling himself. If she was gone, she couldn't have simply disappeared into the ether. She had to have gone somewhere. Anywhere.

"Ask for her when your time comes…"

"B-But…" Why couldn't he breathe? He wanted to pull in great lungfuls of the scent in the air. It was Lucy. It had to be her. "Lucy, please… Don't leave me again." It had to be her. This had to be his Lucy. The voice, the scent. The way this golden form had tried to touch him and how much he ached to feel it caressing his cheek. Anything. "P-Please…"

"She made a promise to herself that she would save you."

"What…" Cobra sat up as the strange being started to dim. He reached out, leaning over the edge of the bed and dropping her keys to the floor. "Wait! Don't go!"

He barely caught the sound of his name before it was gone.

When Cobra blinked again, the sun was trying to peek through the closed curtains. The window was still intact. He was lying on the bed with Lucy's keys in his hand, tucked to his chest, just like they were every night. He thought back to the night before, to Lucy's scent and voice echoing in the room from the golden shape that had appeared.

' _Just a dream,'_ he thought. _'Nothing more…'_

He slowly sat up, looking down at the Fairy Tail emblem on the little leather pouch, then felt the familiar ripple of rage sweeping over him. In the next moment, he was blind to everything around him, solely focused on the too-quiet suffering souls in the city.

They weren't screaming loud enough. No one was suffering the way he was. They didn't have to remember her like this. They didn't wake up with a new hole ripped through their chests. No one knew his pain, and he wanted them to. It hurt so much that he couldn't feel his claws digging into his palms and drawing blood. Numbness swept through him, or maybe he just thought that's what it was. Maybe it was just the pain, so intense and blinding that he couldn't be bothered to feel anything else.

But these bastards milling around the capital would feel his pain. They would know his fury for only a few moments before they died.

"How fucking lucky," he snarled.

Cobra pulled himself from the bed, Lucy's keys still held tightly in his hand, and went to the living room. Right to the map of Fiore. His eye trailed across the map, past the cities that were marked out with large red crosses - he'd already slaughtered everyone in those places, and there was no reason to return.

East. West. North. South.

There.

A slow, manic smile curled his lips while gazing at the name on the map. Quattro Cerberus. A guild full of piddly shit men who would have no idea of the terror he was about to rain down on them. Fairy Tail was no longer a guild, and while he'd promised her that her family would be safe from him… that didn't mean her old guild's allies were.

He turned and made his way to the bathroom while bringing the key pouch to his nose again. Cobra hadn't a clue if any old Fairies were in that guild now - it had been more than five years since they'd disbanded - but he'd keep an eye out. They got a pass. New guild or not, they were safe from him.

He ignored his reflection in the still-broken bathroom mirror and made his way to the shower. Only when he was about to step under the spray, did he finally set down her keys. Just a few hours, and he could make them all scream. He could hear their souls wail in agony, just like his did the day she left him behind.

He couldn't fucking wait.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: And we're back! My hiatus is done, so it's time to get everything updated again! Next up on the list is this one! I hope you guys enjoy it!**

* * *

Cobra sat alone in the middle of the clearing, taking a deep breath as he wrote the final words on the piece of paper in his hand.

It was one year ago to the day that Lucy died, sacrificing herself to finally end Rogue's pathetic existence. A whole year without her being in his life after learning that she should have been a long time ago. He frowned when he realized the entire page was filled front and back with what had been running through his head, and that he didn't have anything else to write on to just keep going. It was the first time he had tried to write everything out, and just like the day he'd lost her, he had more to say than time - or in this case, paper - allowed.

With a shake of his head and a heavy sigh, he tossed the pen to the lush green grass and folded the paper over on itself twice, then withdrew the key pouch Lucy had dropped to the ground that day.

There were times he would look at those keys, and wonder if maybe she had somehow ended up with her spirits. Maybe she was up there in the stars, looking down at him, watching over him while he tried to keep on living without her. He knew it was ridiculous, but that was what wishful thinking was for. He placed the folded paper in the pouch, running his thumb along the key ring as he'd done so many times before, then closed it and returned it to its home in his pocket.

A gentle breeze wafted by, sending the sounds of the forest brushing past him in a soft, lilting melody that only reminded him of the lullaby Lucy's soul had whispered in the end. When four other sounds filtered in, he couldn't stop the quirk of his lips. He'd known they would be coming. It was only a matter of time.

 _'This is it. He'll pay for what he's done.'_

 _'He killed them all. So many lives… wasted… I knew the bastard hadn't changed.'_

 _'That son of a bitch knows we're coming. He can probably already hear us…'_

 _'Why would he do that to Lushy?'_

Cobra chuckled and slowly stood to his feet. The pain and suffering in their souls was a melody he'd reacquainted himself with in the past year. He loved hearing it, being the cause of it, and had reveled in just how many people he'd torn to pieces after she was gone. Those negative emotions drove the four that were pursuing him onward, pushing them to search every corner of Earthland for him to get retribution for the lives he had taken. And the one life they mistakenly believed he had snuffed out.

Erza's thoughts revolved around Jellal, and how she would never get to see his smiling face again.

Gray's heart ached with the knowledge that Sorano had finally become an angel, just like her nickname had always implied.

Natsu's soul flared with anger over the memory of finding Meredy's body that day, her battered and dismembered limbs lying in several large pools of blood.

Happy's thoughts though… Those were focused solely on Lucy. The Exceed didn't have anyone else that he cared as deeply about, not even the white Exceed he still fawned over. Only his relationship with Natsu trumped his love for the deceased blonde. Happy was sad and confused. The little blue flying cat wasn't even angry that she was gone by that point. All he wanted was to understand why _she_ was taken away.

Each of the four of them believed that Cobra had been the one to kill her as well, and he hadn't been available to dissuade those thoughts. He knew exactly what it had looked like when he left the building that day. When he'd left his guild mates' lifeless bodies strewn about the ground along with Lucy's and Rogue's. She had been the only one he'd taken care of, however.

Cobra had grabbed several pillows from that throne Rogue had used, and carefully laid her down on them once everyone else was dead. He'd brushed her hair from her eyes one last time and tenderly kissed her forehead, then adjusted his jacket around her frail body to make sure she was covered. She'd looked so peaceful when he'd finally taken a step back - with the exception of the dried blood that had leaked from her ears, nose, and mouth - so comfortable as though she was merely having a little catnap before they left. He'd only been able to spare her one final glance before turning around and walking out of that room; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to leave at all.

A part of him sometimes wished he _had_ stayed with her, but Cobra had already decided that Lucy would want her friends to know where she was once he'd laid her down. It was why he'd sent a message to Erza with instructions on gathering the remaining members of Team Natsu, and taking them to Lucy's location. Signed by himself.

Now, exactly one year later, the three mages and one Exceed who'd cared so much for her were on their way to make Cobra pay for taking the lives of those they loved.

He stood with his arms crossed in the middle of the clearing, looking at the building that had been the end of everything good in his life. It had been short-lived, only a small handful of moments in comparison to the years of torment he'd experienced before it and the one year of mind-numbing rage afterwards. But those moments that he'd held her in his arms were all he cared about. He'd gotten a taste of what true happiness was like, and that was enough for him.

Their steps drew closer, and he heard Natsu mention that he could smell Cobra just ahead. It was in those few moments that the weariness he'd tried so hard to combat in the last year, finally overtook him.

What was the point in living without her? What kind of life was he really living, anyway? Day in and day out, he killed people. Sometimes they were innocent, and other times they weren't, but he didn't really care one way or the other. Cobra had viewed everyone as his enemy for the past year, because none of them had experienced the pain he had. And it just wasn't fucking fair. So he'd tried - so damn hard - to even the playing field for a change. He wanted everyone to feel the same pain he felt every time he opened his eyes, and all it did was add more pain to the world. More hatred. More bloodshed. Lucy never would have wanted this. She never would have wanted him to do the things he'd done. God, she would have been so fucking _ashamed_ of him, so disappointed. His bright spark of beauty and goodness would have hated the monster he was. And still, he'd gone through with it, because he'd just hurt. Everywhere. All the time. If he hadn't been such a fucking coward, Cobra would have just killed himself. The world would have been a better off place if he'd done that. How many lives would have been spared if he'd just committed suicide?

The group broke through the tree-line, not even trying to hide their approach, and he heard the rage swelling inside of them at just the sight of his back.

As soon as he heard them, Cobra knew what he had to do. The fight in him was gone. He wasn't really sure how he'd kept himself going at all in the last year. He didn't want this anymore. He didn't want to be here, alive, without her. The fight he'd been anticipating started with no preamble, just an enraged and unified roar coming from the three mages while Happy floated high above them.

What threw each of the Fairy Tail mages off was that Cobra didn't move a muscle. He didn't block a single attack that was sent his way. He didn't dodge or try to stop them from hitting him again and again. A whole year of murders, countless gallons of blood shed at this monster's hands, and now he didn't even try to fight back? They couldn't stop themselves though, even if they wanted to. He had to pay for what he'd done, for all the innocent lives that had been ended prematurely because of his depravity.

Natsu's flames scorched Cobra from one side, sending out the searing heat of his rage that those two beautiful women he'd loved more than anything were slaughtered by the maroon-haired bastard.

Gray's ice froze and pierced Cobra's other side, shooting the cold fury he felt at losing a dear friend and the girl he thought of as a baby sister because of this son of a bitch.

Erza's swords danced and whirled about until she sent them in an anguish-fueled volley at the Poison Slayer who'd ripped the two most important people in her life away.

Happy's eyes welled with tears as he watched everything unfold. Why would Cobra do all of those horrible things, and not even say a word to try and stop it? He had wanted to ask why Cobra had killed Lucy, but Happy had a sinking feeling that he would never get the chance. Not with the way Erza, Gray, and Natsu were attacking him.

Cobra took every hit they sent, laughing when each one pierced or sliced into him, drawing more and more of his blood out. Every time he fell, he forced himself to stand again. He'd been waiting for this fight. He'd assumed that he would've been excited over the prospect of getting a chance to fight against Erza and Natsu again. He just didn't have it in him anymore. He didn't want to kill more people, or keep on living in a world without her. If by some miracle there really was an afterlife, Cobra wanted to be there with Lucy. It was all he'd ever wanted.

Hopefully it wasn't something like heaven; otherwise, he'd never get to see her again. His ass would be burning in hell for all of the sins he'd committed in the past year alone.

One final combined hit from the three mages did the trick. Fire, ice, and scores of weapons flew through the air and pierced several large holes in his abdomen. He was surprised that his heart hadn't taken a hit while he fell that final time, but he could feel his lungs struggling to bring in more oxygen. His breath left in a rattling wheeze once he connected with the ground, and Cobra's mouth spread into a wide grin when Erza, Natsu, Gray, and Happy all towered over him.

 _'This is it,'_ he thought. He lifted one quivering, bloody hand from the ground and slowly reached into his pocket to pull out Lucy's keys. _'Just one last time. Maybe it'll help me find her on the other side…'_

Their eyes went wide when they recognized the little brown pouch adorned with the Fairy Tail emblem in Cobra's hand, and confusion hit them a moment later when his eye closed as he brought the bit of leather to his nose. Natsu growled low in his throat, and took a step forward. "Why do you have-"

Cobra coughed and tasted more blood in his mouth, but he kept her keys against his nose while he took another breath. "Cobra… and Erik," he rasped, opening his eye and looking directly into Natsu's onyx eyes that had a raging inferno burning in their depths, "Always… wanted the same thing… after all…"

Erza frowned and narrowed her eyes, remembering the day Jellal had explained to her that Cobra was one of the only ones that never allowed others to say his birth name, because he believed that the bearer of that name had died in the Tower of Heaven. In Cobra's mind, they were two completely separate entities. She'd never been told what his real name actually was, but hearing it nagged at the back of her mind. She just couldn't figure out just why it sounded so familiar.

"I'll… sh-show you… what happened…" Cobra coughed. "H-How she died to... save all of us…" When their eyes went wide in shock at his statement, Cobra focused on his dwindling soul and created four copies of his memories from that day, then used his magic to carefully push those little bundles out to the ones who'd finally taken him down.

 _Hearing Rogue through the doors. Seeing Lucy in the cage, pinned by the Shadow Dragon Slayer. Breaking her out of those shackles. How frail she was, and the damage her body had sustained while in captivity._

Tears streamed down Erza's face when she saw and heard what had transpired that day. None of them had been able to place the one corpse that didn't belong to Lucy or a Crime Sorciere member; not even Natsu's heightened sense of smell was able to discern who it was by the time they'd gotten there. Erza heard everything that Cobra had that day - everything in Lucy's soul, and what she had been silently telling him - and dropped to her knees when she found out just what Lucy had been forced to endure while she was in captivity.

 _"That's… That's not the worst he's done, Cobra. I'll be fine…"_

 _"It's okay, Cobra. I trust you."_

 _"You're with Jellal and Meredy, which means you're okay in Erza's book. If she trusts you, then so do I."_

Cobra's breathing became more ragged as time crawled forward. After sending out his memories, he simply turned his head to look up at the beautiful blue sky. It had been so long since he'd taken the time to look at the sky, to try and find little images in the clouds that slowly floated past. In fact, he hadn't done it since he was locked in the Tower.

He couldn't feel the pain of his injuries any longer, so he knew that he didn't have much time left.

 _'Please… If there's someone that can hear me… Please let me be with her. Let me see her one more time… Just once…'_ He didn't have the best history where things like _prayers_ were concerned, but that wasn't what this was. He wasn't praying to some higher power to grant his wish like a genie in a bottle. He just wanted a miracle. Cobra wanted to see Lucy's smiling face as more than just a memory from someone else who had known her. He wanted her to smile just for him, like the depths of her soul had done when she died and confessed her love with a memory. _'Lucy… Please help me… I'm so lost without you.'_

 _"It's not just the fact that they're here with you, Cobra… You wouldn't have tried to help me if you didn't want to."_

 _"Just let it out, Lucy… I'll keep you safe, alright?"_

 _"Please… Don't let him hurt me anymore, Cobra…"_

 _"I promise, Lucy. He won't hurt you ever again. I'll protect you."_

 _"I'll get you out of here when it's safe, okay?"_

Blood was filling his lungs, making it harder to breathe. He was starting to get cold, even though it was the middle of the summer. The sun shined down so brightly in the clearing, just like it had been in Lucy's soul - when he'd gotten to see her as she should be. Cobra closed his eye and wished with everything he had that just once… something would go right for him. He didn't deserve it, he knew that. At least two decades of his life had been spent making sure he would never be worthy of happiness - even though he hadn't thought of it that way at the time. So, who was he to start asking for favors now?

"Please… I-I'm… sorry…" he rasped before coughing up more blood, his body struggling to keep going even though he didn't want to live. He didn't want to be there anymore. He wanted to be with her again. So why? Why did his body have to keep fighting like this? _'Please save me, Lucy… Set me free… Please…'_

 _'I can't go back in that cage… I can't… I'd rather be dead than—'_

 _"Shh, I won't let that happen. We'll get you to a hospital once he's dead. They'll take care of you there."_

 _'Don't leave me alone… Please, don't leave me alone… I trust you… Not them… Please… Please Cobra… Please! They'll cut me open and hurt me. All those knives and masks. Don't leave me, Cobra…'_

 _"I won't leave you… I'll protect you."_

Cobra felt tears trickling down the side of his face and he pulled in another shallow breath that was filled with the scent of Lucy's key pouch. He wasn't going to see her again, he just knew it. He would die alone. Unloved. What Lucy had been afraid of happening to her, and what he'd kept from happening… The universe decided to put things the way they should be, and make him suffer the fate that could have easily befallen the once radiant blonde.

 _'If none of that works, there's always Plan N…'_

 _"I might not be able to move, but I don't need to for this to work."_

 _"Wait until he's close enough…"_

 _'I'm sorry this is hurting you…'_

 _"Burn in hell, you son of a bitch."_

 _"Jellal, help! PLEASE HURRY!"_

 _"I-I never got to tell you… Please, Lucy… Don't g-go…"_

Cobra's mouth thinned into a grimace, the corners pulling down only marginally while he wallowed in his own misery. He knew it wasn't meant to be. He loved her, and he'd lost her. There was no afterlife where they could be together. He'd been a fucking idiot all this time.

* * *

"What's happening?" Jude asked as Layla dragged him through the woods.

"Lucy's crying," Layla said quickly. "It's Cobra…"

"No…"

"Cobra!" Lucy shouted, kneeling on the ledge over the seeing pool she never left. "This isn't the way… Please!"

 _His breath left in a rattling wheeze once he connected with the ground, and Cobra's mouth spread into a wide grin when Erza, Natsu, Gray, and Happy all towered over him. He lifted one quivering, bloody hand from the ground and slowly reached into his pocket to pull out Lucy's keys._

"Lucy!" Jude shouted, rounding the corner and running to kneel next to her by the pool. He gasped when he saw three mages hovering over Cobra, rage filling their ragged breaths as the Poison Slayer bled out on the ground. "What have they done?"

The wind sighed, sending her golden hair fluttering around her shoulders and carrying a tormented voice's silent plea. ' _Please… If there's someone that can hear me…'_

Lucy sniffled, her eyes never leaving Cobra's blood-filled smile. So many times, she'd seen him covered in the blood of others, washing it off, but this was his own. It wasn't right.

"Is that… his voice?" Layla whispered, looking at the air around them with a frown.

' _Please let me be with her,'_ the voice on the wind begged. ' _Let me see her one more time… Just once…'_

Lucy swiped her tears away before they could touch the pool and shatter the image she was seeing. If the water rippled, she had no idea how much time would pass in Earthland before she was able to see him again. It could be too late.

' _Lucy… Please help me…'_

She brought a hand to her lips as a sob wracked her slender shoulders. "C-Cobra?" she whimpered. "I-Is it…"

"It must be him," Jude sighed, standing on her other side. "Lucy…"

Lucy stood from the edge of the pool, determination filling her eyes. "I'm going to save him."

Jude and Layla turned sharply to gape at her. "Lucy, you can't!" Jude shouted. "After everything he's done since you died…"

"He's sorry for it, Papa," she insisted. "He never wanted to do any of it."

"But he still did it," Jude shot back. "Your friends want him here just as much as you do, but this…"

Lucy smiled down at the image of the man she loved. "Cobra, I'm coming for you. I swear it."

"Lucy," Layla sighed, "We all know you've gone to him in his dreams, and you've followed the rules about him not really seeing you and everything else, but-"

"He sacrificed himself!" Lucy shouted, rounding on her parents with a vicious scowl. "He doesn't want to do this anymore! He's tired of everything that's happened, of living life this way!"

"So, you're saying it's an assisted suicide?" Jude breathed. "He just let them kill him?"

' _I'm so lost without you.'_

Lucy smiled down at Cobra, watching him struggling to breathe while tears welled in his eye. "He's apologizing for what he's done. Cobra knew he deserved to die, but… He doesn't think I'll be waiting for him. Or that he'll ever see me again."

"How do you know that?" Layla asked gently.

"Because I love him," Lucy laughed, wiping away her tears. "I've gotten to know a lot about him since I died, watching him this way. If you and Papa can be here together after the things he did, then Cobra deserves the same thing. He _deserves_ to have the chance for someone to love him, to feel what that's even like. I promised I'd set him free one day, and now's the only chance I've got… And I won't let _anyone_ stop me from helping him now."

Feminine laughter drew Lucy's attention, and she looked up to see her parents smiling down at her, with Jellal and the others running into the clearing and staring at them with wide eyes.

 _"Please… I-I'm… sorry…" Cobra rasped before coughing up more blood._

In the air around them, everyone could hear the dying Slayer's thoughts while they stared into his teary eye. ' _Please save me, Lucy…'_

"You're just like your mother," Jude chuckled.

Layla took a step forward, looking down at the tan skin and maroon hair of the man Lucy had fallen in love with. "This is him, then. Who he truly is."

"Y-Yes," Lucy said. "I have to help him, Mama. I can do that, right? I can help him move on, and bring him here?"

' _Set me free… Please…'_

Layla watched as the mages surrounding Cobra stared sightlessly ahead of them, each of their faces horror-stricken. "What did he do to them?"

"He showed them the truth about the day I died," Lucy sniffled. "Everyone thought he killed me, too. Cobra never tried to make them understand it wasn't him, and… M-Mama, please… Let me bring him home."

"Cobra's never had a home before," Macbeth said softly while walking over to the group. "None of us really did until we came here."

"And he's the only one that always kept himself away from others," Jellal added.

"The first time we saw him cry was when he saved Lucy," Sorano said while coming into view.

"He's done all of this because he doesn't have her," Meredy sniffled.

"You've gotta let her go," Racer insisted.

Lucy's smile trembled while she looked around at her friends. "You guys…"

"He's our family," Sorano said with a tender smile. "He deserves to be happy for once. After what happened to him in the Tower, and then what Brain did to all of us… Cobra deserves this."

Layla gave Lucy a long, contemplative look, then sighed and smiled at her daughter. "You really are just like me, aren't you?"

"A Celestial mage _never_ breaks a promise, Mama," Lucy said as the older blonde came forward and wiped her tears away. "You taught me that. And I promised myself I'd help him."

"Then don't let us stop you, love," Layla replied. She reached down and touched the pool, sending a powerful ripple through the water that clouded the image of Cobra lying on the ground. A swell of power rose from the bubbling surface, and the water shot into the air in a violently spiralling column. After only a moment, it broke apart to reveal a golden door that slowly opened.

Lucy gasped as she saw the field Cobra was lying in through the doorway. "I'll be back soon," she said to her friends. "I'm bringing him home."

With that, she stepped onto the little stone ledge, hesitating at the edge of the water. Her first step showed that it held her weight, and she quickly made her way over to the door and walked through.


End file.
